Time to Start!

Time to start training Quinn’s first SD task: the retrieve. This will be the basis for a lot of tasks. Take/Get and Give/Bring. I’m excited, nervous. Joella did anything I asked because she wanted to. Mike did almost anything if he felt like it, if I presented it right and/or asked nicely, and if there was enough food involved. Quinn…I’m not sure. She is quite food motivated but not as much as Mike (thank god!) but her eagerness is both a hindrance and a blessing.

We’ll be using Susan Ailsby’s Training Levels, Donna Hill’s YouTube videos, and Gail Hubbard of A Good Dog’s Life. Yes, we can do this.

The Manner’s II class at A Good Dog’s Life won’t start for a few more weeks so we have some time to firm up what we learned and to start new stuff. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will do more fun stuff then Monday get serious again. Quinn does so much better on days where she gets several training sessions in. She loves learning!

We’ve worked a little on TAKE already. She knows TOUCH solid. She’ll touch anything I hold out. So what I did was not click for simple touch but waited for her to open her mouth on the object. Which did not take long! Once she realized biting the object was acceptable, well, she loved that!

Tomorrow we’ll go to Lowe’s together for the first time. I need a dowel and some hose and probably a small tool box to hold our training stuff. And a lock for it so the little darlin’ doesn’t open it to play with the contents. Yes, she would do that.